Undercover Op of a Lifetime
by Jagfan 724
Summary: [Hiatus] Webb wants Sarah back, how far will he go to get her?
1. Default Chapter

AN: Kind of follows after Kissin' for Tickets but not really a sequel, just another step in Harm & Mac's growing relationship. Oh, and Mattie doesn't exist. It would just be too complicated to fit her into this story.  
  
TITLE: THE CASE OF A LIFETIME DISCLAIMERS: I own nothing. If I did, Mac would have morning sickness (not some serious possibly cancerous disease) right now with her and Harm's third child and they would have gotten married years ago. However, until DPB decides to end their "dance" I shall have to make do with my own ideas and fantasies about the two finally getting together.

CHAPTER 1  
  
JAG HEADQUARTERS

Mac and Harm were sitting in her office going over a file when she suddenly dropped the papers in her hand and sat up in her chair. He gave her a questioning glance before turning around to see what had caught her attention. Webb was walking through the bullpen towards the Admiral's office with the strangest look on his face.

"Sarah? You okay?" asked Harm, turning back around in his chair.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she answered quickly. She leaned down and gathered up the papers that had fluttered to the ground. What was he doing there? It wasn't for another one of his investigations, was it?

"I wonder why he's here," Harm thought aloud.

"Huh? What?"

Harm had never seen her so jittery. He didn't know what exactly had taken place when Mac had dumped Webb.

Webb had come back from some trip out of the country, one of many lately, and Mac had had enough of being left alone. When he had arrived at her door, she had reluctantly let him in. Webb was disappointed when she didn't greet him with a kiss but instead informed him that they needed to talk. They had sat down, he on the couch expecting her to join him there and was once again disappointed when she took the sofa chair across the room. She needed to put some space between them.

Mac told him that she needed someone that would be there with her when she needed him, not someone that was constantly out of the country and away from her. His first thought was to blame Rabb. Deep down inside Webb knew that he would lose her if Rabb ever got his head out of his six. But his job was also to blame, he knew that and he had accepted it. Somehow he thought that things would be better with Sarah Mackenzie, but then she told him that whatever kind of relationship they had was over. She was one of a kind and he was determined not to let her go, so he dismissed her mood as just that. A mood and nothing else.

Webb had left, parting kindly with her, and Mac thought that everything would be okay. But then he had called her the next day wanting to have lunch. She had refused, telling him that she had too much work to do. Mac thought that it was just a polite invitation. But then Webb had stopped by her place after work. He had almost gone in except he had seen Harm's car parked out front. Boy, he didn't waste any time, Webb thought.

Webb began to wonder how long she and Harm had been seeing each other behind his back. It became an obsession with him to get her back. She of course, had stopped him at every opportunity. Finally when she threatened to call the police he backed off. He would have to find another way to get her back into his arms again. It had taken a while before an idea had come to him. Get rid of Rabb and she would have no one else to turn to.

Now he stood in Admiral Chegwidden's office, ready to being his plan. Of course, that night was all innocent. At least as innocent as one can get with Harm and Mac. They were slowly working on rebuilding their friendship. That night that Webb had stopped by had been the first one in months that Harm and Mac had gotten together to work on a case. Secretly, Mac had just wanted to be with him. Webb was causing too much stress in her life and when she was with Harm, she felt protected. They had worked on the case, enjoyed a nice dinner together of devouring one extra large pizza before Harm had left for the night. She hadn't seen Webb for several days and now that he was here, at JAG HQ, she was worried as to what he was up to. Coates jumped as the Admiral's voice came through the intercom.

"Coates, get me Rabb. Now!"

"Yes, sir," she said, getting up and hurrying to the Colonel's office.

"Mac, are you okay?" Harm asked again.

She didn't have a chance to answer as Jen knocked on the door. "Ma'am, sir, excuse me, but the Admiral would like to see the Commander in his office ASAP," Jen told them nervously.

"Thanks, Coates." He turned to Mac, setting the file he was reading through down on her desk.

"This could take a while. Do you still want to have dinner with me tonight so we can finish going over these?"

"Yeah, I'll pack it all up and bring them over about 1900." She silently groaned as she looked around at the piles in front of her.

"Thanks, Mac," he said, stepping out of her office, shutting the door and heading towards Chegwidden's office. He knocked on the door and waited.

"Enter!" Chegwidden barked, glaring at Webb in front of him. He was tired of his senior officers being used for CIA ops. This was a military law office after all.

"You wanted to see me, Admiral?" Harm said. Then he saw Webb standing in the corner, the hint of a smirk on his face.

"Take a seat, Commander. Webb has something he'd like to tell you," AJ said, gesturing to the chairs in front of his large desk. No way was he going to take the blame for pushing this case on Rabb.

Harm sat down, eyeing Webb suspiciously as he proceeded to tell him about the case. There was a terrorist who was trying to buy military equipment and weapons. He had been successful in acclaiming several important pieces of new technology but now the CIA was onto him and needed Rabb to go undercover. They wanted Rabb to pretend to be interested in selling some nuclear weapons so they could trap the terrorist cell. When Webb was finished explaining, Harm was already mentally trying to figure out how to say no. Webb's plans usually had more than one catch that he just failed to let them know about. Too many had had ulterior motives and came with plans and secrets that he would not be privy to.

"Sorry, Webb, not this time," Harm said.

"Commander, I'm afraid the SECNAV has already approved it. You don't have a choice," Chegwidden told the younger man, still glaring at Webb.

"Sir?"

"Here's your cover and needed information," Webb said, throwing a file down on the edge of the desk.

"Needed information?" repeated Harm. He shook his head as he flipped through the pages. It was a rather thin file, too thin.

"We can't let you in on everything," Webb said, smirking once again.

"Webb!" AJ rose from his chair to stand directly in front of Webb. Webb would never let on that he was terrified of the two-star Admiral who was also an ex-Navy seal and now he fought his urge to step back, out of punching range.

"I am tired of you using my officers for your pet projects. If something goes wrong with this one, I will be holding you personally responsible. After what happened down in Paraguay, I would have thought that you had learned your lesson," AJ yelled.

"SECNAV approved it, Admiral." Webb's grin was triumphant and Harm ached to wipe it off his face. Preferably with a nice, hard punch.

"OUT, WEBB!" Webb was gone in a second.

"Commander, I know you don't want to do this, but once again Webb has gone over my head," AJ sighed.

"Is there any way I can get out of this, sir?" Harm asked hopefully.

AJ shook his head. "I'll redistribute all your cases. Why don't you take the rest of the afternoon off? Your leave for this starts tomorrow anyway."

"Thank you, sir." Harm stood up, snapped to attention and waited for the Admiral to dismiss him.

"Dismissed. Oh, and Commander?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Good luck."

"Thank you, sir." Harm went to his office, gathered up his stuff and headed home.


	2. Chapter 2: Stress Beyond Belief

CHAPTER 2  
  
HARM'S APARTMENT  
1648 ZULU  
Harm sat in the kitchen on one of the stools, tuning up his guitar. A few sheets of music were sitting on a stand in front of him. This case was weighing so heavily on his mind that it completely slipped his mind that he needed to order a pizza. He began playing; sometimes reading the music, sometimes improvising the notes, sending a sweet and melodic sound throughout his loft. He rarely had a chance to play anymore but needed to do something to relieve the stress and tension that was building.  
  
He had read through the file, several times in fact. It was like nothing he'd ever seen before. Too many important details were missing, none of it made sense. It seems like the whole case had half-hazardly been thrown together. He was worried about it, more so than usual.

HALLWAY OUTSIDE OF HARM'S APARTMENT  
1659 ZULU  
Mac lugged the box down the hall and came to rest in front of Harm's doorway, needing a moment to catch her breath. She had yet to be told that Harm wouldn't be able to work on any of the cases. She could hear him playing his guitar and a smile crept across her face. His playing was filled with such a passion and devotion that she couldn't help but be mesmerized by its sound.  
  
She stood there listening for a few minutes, not wanting to disturb his playing before she finally pulled out the spare key he'd given her years ago and quietly opened the door. She carefully carried the box inside, trying to be quiet but when she turned around to look at him, he was watching her. Harm continued to play as Mac came to take a seat next to him. He finished up the song and gently set his guitar on the counter.  
  
"That was beautiful," she complimented.  
  
"Thanks," he said, flashing Mac his flyboy grin. But then it faded and he let out a groan. "I forgot to order the pizza."  
  
"That's okay, I'll order it," Mac offered.  
  
Harm went to sit on the couch while Mac called the nearby pizza place and ordered an extra large pizza, half meat lovers, half vegetarian. He slouched back and closed his eyes, trying to ignore the pounding in his head.  
  
"It'll be here in half an hour," Mac told him.  
  
"I'm sorry I forgot," he apologized, still not opening his eyes.  
  
"You okay?"  
  
"No."  
  
"And?" She waited for a response.  
  
"Headache."  
  
"Do you want me to leave?"  
  
"No," he quickly answered. "Please stay, I want you to stay."  
  
She got up from the couch and went in search of some aspirin. He listened to her rummaging around in the kitchen cabinets and then in the bathroom.  
  
"Top shelf, above the sink," he called out.  
  
"Thanks." She found what she was looking for and returned with two aspirin and a glass of water. "Here."  
  
He opened his eyes to take them from her. He put the pills in his mouth and gulped down the glass of water. He handed her back the glass and slouched back again, eyes closing.  
  
"Harm, I've never seen you so stressed. What's going on?" she asked, sitting down next to him again.  
  
"I have to go away on a case," he announced.  
  
"About what?"  
  
"Classified."  
  
"Where to?"  
  
"Classified."  
  
"For how long?"  
  
"I don't know."  
  
"This has Webb and CIA written all over it," she told him, immediately worried.  
  
"That I can tell you. You know how Webb was in the office today?" he started. She nodded. "Well, somehow there's some undercover op that he wants me for and the SECNAV already approved it. Chegwidden tried to get me out of it but Webb went over his head on this one. Again."  
  
"Is it complicated? Wait, what am I saying? It involves Webb, of course it's complicated," Mac asked.  
  
"I'd let you read the case file but unfortunately, it's classified. But I've read through it at least a dozen times and it just doesn't make sense."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"There's hardly any information, any facts. Usually they give us pages and pages of information, but this time there's practically nothing."  
  
"When do you leave?"  
  
"I fly out early Monday morning," he told her, finally opening his blue- green eyes to look at her. He could see that she was worried and he wished that he could tell her that everything would be okay and that she didn't need to worry but even he was worried about this one.  
  
She sighed. "That means that all your work gets to be dispersed out, probably all to me. And it means that going over these files with you is pointless."  
  
"No, it's not. There's a few briefs and depositions in there that we need to finish."  
  
Someone knocked on his door at that moment and he got up to answer it. He paid the delivery boy and took the pizza inside, setting it on the coffee table.  
  
They spent the rest of the night devouring the pizza and finishing up case briefs and working on other files. It was nearly 0230 when Harm set down the last file and looked over at Mac. She had fallen asleep at the other end of his couch. He smiled at the sight. There was no way he was waking her up so she could drive home.  
  
He carefully picked her up and carried her to his bed. He gently lay her down and covered her with a few blankets. Harm looked back at his couch, now seemingly small, and then at his bed. If he slept on the couch, he would wake up with a sore back and a stiff neck. But if he took the bed, he might incur the wrath of a marine. On the other hand, waking up to her in the morning would definitely be worth whatever she would dish out at him. Bed, it was, he decided.  
  
But as soon as he had changed and settled down into bed next to her, she stirred and awoke slightly.  
  
"Harm?" she said softly.  
  
"Yes, honey?" Oops, the endearment had just slipped out of his mouth. Not that he didn't mean it.  
  
"Are you sure my staying here is okay?" she was still half-asleep and he could barely make out the words in her mumbling.  
  
"It's fine, Sarah, just get some sleep," he assured her. He leaned over to gently brush a kiss on her cheek. "Good night."  
  
"Night," she murmured.  
  
When Harm awoke in the morning, she was gone. She knew that he didn't have to go into work and that it would be best to let him sleep in. Unfortunately, she had court at 9:00 otherwise she would have called in and taken a sick day. Mac would have given anything to have spent a few more hours being held by her sailor. Instead, she forced herself to wake, shower, dress, and leave him. That man could sleep through anything. She had written him a note, placing it on the pillow next to him. She gently kissed his forehead, whispered good-bye and left for work.  
  
Harm finally woke up around 9:30, late for him. He rolled over, stretched out and found the note waiting for him.  
  
_Morning sleepyhead!  
  
Sorry I left without saying goodbye, I'm due in court early this morning. Call me before you go undercover, I'd like to be with my best friend before he disappears into the unknown. Thanks for helping me finish that work last night and I'm sorry I fell asleep on you.  
  
Mac  
_  
He wished that he could have wakened earlier to have seen her off instead of sleeping right through it all. She was beautiful in the morning, that much he knew. She was even beautiful while she slept too. Darn it.

JAG HEADQUARTERS  
1700 ZULU  
MAC'S OFFICE  
Mac sighed, frustrated at her performance in court. Things could not have gone worse. Sturgis had completely snuck up and taken her by surprise with his tactic and Mac was left floundering around for the rest of the afternoon. The case should have been a slam dunk but now she would have to spend Monday in court doing damage control and cleanup on what had taken place today. It was not a good way to end her week.  
  
And to top it all off, she was missing several important papers that she was supposed to have turned in to the Admiral before lunch. Luckily, he had heard about her awful day in the courtroom and had granted her an extension. Of course that had come with a reprimand on the importance of completing paperwork and doing her duty, one that she had suffered through.  
  
Frowning as she searched through the mountain of files on her desk and then through the piles on the floor spread about her office, she was unsuccessful.  
  
"Maybe I left them at Harm's," she mused. Knowing that she would get no other work done until the papers were found, she gathered up her stuff and headed out to her car.


End file.
